A DELIVERY driver who groped a drunken university student in his van after offering her a lift home in the early hours of the morning has been jailed.
Abid Muhammad had originally denied sexually assaulting the young woman after picking her up in Kenilworth, where she had been left by a taxi driver.
But at a further hearing at Warwick Crown Court, the 29-year-old, of Creswell Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, changed his plea to guilty and was jailed for 17 months.
Prosecutor James Thomas said in April 2018 a student who had been for a night out in Leamington tried to get a taxi to take her back to Coventry in the early hours of the morning.
But the taxi driver only took her as far as Kenilworth, possibly because she did not have enough for the fare all the way back to her home.
The young woman, who had clearly been drinking, was spotted by Muhammed as he was making newspaper deliveries to shops in the area in a Sprinter van.
He offered to give her a lift home to Coventry, but said he had to make a few more deliveries on the way – and the grateful student accepted his offer and even helped him drop off papers.
But as the journey continued, she began to feel uncomfortable and became concerned as his comments towards her became more suggestive and he asked her to sit closer to him.
Her fears proved well-founded as, while he was still driving, Muhammad reached across and put his hand under her top and touched her breast, as well as touching her elsewhere on her body over her clothes.
She had sent texts to a friend expressing her concern during the journey, and her friend contacted the police.
But when Muhammad was arrested, he denied sexually assaulting her – and maintained his denial when he first appeared in court.
Judge Barry Berlin also ordered Muhammad to register as a sex offender for ten years.
